Gilmore Girls: Years in the Life
by Sk8erGrl
Summary: Alternating between the present and the future, the story follows two generations of Gilmore women as they navigate big changes in their lives. 32 year old Rory attempts to get her life together after being thrown off course, while 16 year old Laurel balances the weight of her mother's legacy and the secret that could dismantle everything. Post-AYITL, some spoilers ahead.
1. Laurel's First Day at Chilton

Sixteen year old Laurel Gilmore stood, anxiously bouncing, at the bottom of the staircase of the house her family had just moved into, her too-heavy school bag already hoisted over her shoulders. It had been her mother's school bag once upon a time. The yellow had faded miserably and it was covered in duct tape, but she refused to part with it. At least, not until the day it actually disintegrated in her hands and left her stranded with a pile of books too heavy to carry on her own. There was no real reason for it, other than the sentimental value that Laurel herself had applied to it on her first day of kindergarten. She had cried so hard about having to go until Rory had given her the bag, even though it was far too big for a child her size, and she hadn't let go of it since.

" _Mom_!" She shouted up the stairs, checking her watch and knowing, undoubtedly, that if they didn't leave in the next thirty seconds they were going to be late to her first day at her new school.

Which wouldn't have been a big deal if her new school hadn't been Chilton, her mother's alma mater. Already her mother's reputation had followed her for her entire life, but now that legacy was completely tangible. They were living in the same town that Rory had grown up in, she was going to the same school. In New York, her mother had just been a character in a book. Here, she was so much more.

As if the Gilmore legacy wasn't enough to live up to when it was just words on a page to most people.

"We're going to be late to my first day, which would be a total cliché, you know."

Laurel could have continued the rant, had a pair of ratty old cowboy boots not appeared suddenly at the top of the stairs. Her blue eyes widened as her nearly fifty year old mother came into view wearing booty shorts that exposed her long, bare legs and a pink tie dye t-shirt. It was nothing she had ever seen Rory Gilmore wear before in her entire life. "No, no way," she crossed her arms and firmly shook her head, "You can't wear that, people are going to think we're the Dukes of Hazard!"

There was a spark of mischief in her mother's eyes that Laurel immediately recognized as being reflective of her Grandma Lorelai. "Sorry kid, it's tradition. First day of Chilton calls for mom to dress like the rodeo is in town. You can thank your grandmother for this later."

Narrowing her eyes briefly at her mother, Laurel then turned towards the figure sitting in the living room behind them. "Dad, would you _please_ talk some sense into her?"

Dark eyes peered from over the book her father had been quietly reading on the couch, staying out of everything until this moment. The corners of his lips gently tugged up into a smirk and Laurel knew she had already lost the battle. "Personally, I think she looks pretty hot."

"Gross." With an exasperated sigh, she made face at both of her parents. "Fine, let's go, but you have to stay in the car." Then, with a dramatic flair that she could only have learned from her grandmother, Laurel turned on her heels and stomped out of the house.

From across the room, Rory shared a look with her husband, a thousand words spoken between them, before she disappeared out the door after their daughter.

* * *

The kids had been staring at her all morning. Not that she wasn't used to turning heads, Laurel Gilmore had been doing it since before she hit puberty. Lorelai had once joked that she was a prodigy destined to leave more broken hearts in her wake than Liz Taylor. Laurel knew that she stood out in a crowd. She was striking, with her piercing blue eyes and dirty blonde hair. A classic beauty, Miss Patty and Babette had once called her, years ago. If only that had been the reason people were gawking at her now and not because she was fresh meat in a sea of kids who had known each other their whole lives.

Briefly, she wondered if they still used the biblical nicknames they had when her mother had been in high school and whether she would be a Virgin Mary or a Mary Magdalene.

She missed New York already, the loudness and grunginess of her old school.

When she looked up from her schedule, she immediately noticed a sharp-faced girl with dark hair taking long strides up to her. "You must be the new girl, Laurel Gilmore."

"That's the name my good mother gave me," she nodded, "Who are you?"

"Asia Tudor. I'm leading the race for valedictorian in our year, so I just thought I'd introduce myself right away." There was a heat in her gaze, a drive that wasn't hard to recognize. Laurel had seen that same look many times in her life. "I know all about your mother. I've followed her career for years. I've heard her talks, read her book, she's a legend. I admire and respect her, but don't think that things are just going to be handed to you because you think you have some kind of advantage being related to Rory Gilmore. I have skin in the game too, and I'm going to win."

Without even really meaning to, Laurel burst into the laughter at the end of the tirade. She couldn't help it. The whole thing had just been too eerily Paris Geller for her, and Laurel was not intimidated by it for one second. When you had grown up knowing the real Paris, all imitations paled in comparison.

Her reaction had obviously caught Asia off-guard. The dark-haired girl blinked, confusion etched across her face for just a second before she composed herself again. "Just watch yourself, Gilmore."

"Wait," reaching out, Laurel grabbed her arm to stop her before she walked away. Squaring her shoulders, she summoned all her bold, cool confidence. Rory insisted she got that part from her father.

"What?" the brunette snapped.

"My mom had an Asia when she went here," Laurel explained, "Except she was called Paris and they hated each other for a long time before they became best friends. Now, I'm not saying that we should be best friends, but I think we can make each other better. So, let's just call off all the crazy and agree to at least be friendly competitors?"

Looking Laurel up and down once, Asia hesitated briefly.

"Fine," she relented, sucking in a breath. Laurel quirked an eyebrow, waiting to see what followed. "Your next class is English with Mr. Lowell, you should record his lectures. He talks painfully slow so it's impossible to pay attention to him."

Then, just as suddenly as she had appeared in front of Laurel, Asia Tudor turned and stalked away down the hallway without so much as another word. Smiling to herself, Laurel slipped her phone out of her pocket and swiped to dial her mother's number.

"I just met my Paris," she announced before Rory even had a chance to say hello.

"Is she as terrifying?"

"No one could be, but her name is Asia and she's already given me the valedictorian speech."

"Asia, really?"

"Really."

"Mom is going to love this one."

* * *

Not a single thing about Luke's Diner had changed in the whole sixteen years that Laurel had been alive. It was one of the most comforting things she knew. As much as everything else could change, like moving out of the brownstone in New York she had grown up in, at least this one little corner of the world could stay the same no matter how much time passed. Even the sign that read William's Hardware out front hadn't been polished or cleaned in her lifetime, it was her favorite thing.

Slipping onto one of the stools in front of the counter, she dropped a thick text book down in front of her, opening it to the first page. Without a word, Luke pushed a plate of pie in front of her and Laurel looked up, beaming at her grandfather. "Just don't tell Lorelai," he warned, "I told her we were all out earlier." She knew without him saying it, he had saved it for her.

"Mum's the word." Laurel pretended to zip her mouth shut and throw away the key and Luke offered her a conspiratorial wink before walking away to clean tables.

As hard as it had been for her to adjust to the move over the summer, Laurel had to admit that getting to hang out at Luke's Diner after school had to be one of the few perks of the move. Sometimes she felt like the diner was the closest she could get to home, her grandfather's gruff, unapologetic behavior was the perfect backdrop for her to clear her mind and focus on her work. The diner was lively and noisy, all of the things she had loved about growing up in the city.

"You would not _believe_ the day I had," a tall, lean brunette threw herself down on the stool next to Laurel, resting her head on the counter and interrupting any plans Laurel had of getting a head start on her new, heavy course load at Chilton.

"Did you and Ryan have another fight?" Laurel asked, pushing a fork towards the other girl as her new seatmate nodded her head and lapsed into the story of the latest tiff with her boyfriend.

Laurel and Sarah Forester had become fast friends over the summer when Laurel had first moved to Stars Hollow. The year before, Sarah had been the new girl in Stars Hollow along with her three older brothers, and had been eager to take Laurel under her wing. They had crossed paths in the past, over holidays when they would each visit their respective set of grandparents in town, but Sarah lived in Scranton and neither girl had ever had an opportunity to get to know each other before. Now, they were inseparable allies. Much to the dismay of their parents.

Apparently Sarah's father, Dean, and Laurel's mother had had quite the history. Everyone had moved on since then though, but there was a palpable tension that still existed between their fathers. Neither knew why, but they had spent many an afternoon theorizing exactly what might have happened all those years ago. Of course, Laurel knew that her mother had written about it in her book, but she hadn't been allowed to read it yet.

Once, when she had been fourteen, she had shop-lifted a copy of it from a bookstore, and attempted to read it in a park nearby. She had felt so guilty though that she immediately returned it to the store before she even got past the first chapter. After confessing her minor brush with juvenile delinquency, Rory had promised Laurel that if she really wanted to read it, she would give Laurel her own, legitimate, copy when she turned sixteen.

That birthday had come and gone, and Laurel's copy of _Gilmore Girls_ had sat untouched on her desk for months. For years she had yearned to read it, but now that she was finally allowed to, Laurel wasn't sure she was ready to know all of her mother's secrets.

"Earth to Laurel!" Sarah waved a hand in front of her face, "Were you even listening?"

"Sorry," shaking her head, Laurel tried to snap out of her trance, "Just tired from school."

"Wish you had just come to SHH with me yet?"

"Like you wouldn't believe."

They lapsed into fast-paced conversation about high school life for the next few hours, Laurel pushing the thought of her mother's book aside until later, when she was alone in her new room.

Firming shutting the door so as not to be disturbed by either of her parents, Laurel finally picked up the copy her mother had given her on her birthday. Turning to the first page, she traced the words of the personal message her mother had scrawled there, then started with the dedication.

 _To my mother, I owe everything to you._

 _And to my daughter, Laurel, the next generation._


	2. Post-Wedding Haze

Even tucked into her childhood bed, Rory Gilmore could still hear the music and laughter of the entire town celebrating the nuptials of Stars Hollow's favorite couple. It made Rory smile in the darkness. She was exhausted from the all-nighter they had pulled for the elopement, but more content than she could remember being in years. _Finally_ , her mother and Luke had gotten married. There was no ending happier or more hopeful than that in her eyes.

Moving her hand over her belly, she swore she could feel the slightly swell of the life growing inside of her already.

A part of her felt guilty for blindsiding the news to her mother on what should have been the happiest day of her life, but she hadn't been able to keep it from Lorelai for another second. She had dreaded the look of disappointment on her mother's face to find out that despite her best efforts, Rory had still managed to end up just like her, but it wouldn't have been completely real until Lorelai knew. And even though she was thirty-two and not sixteen, she was just as alone and lost as her mother had been when she had gotten pregnant with Rory.

This was definitely not the way her story had been supposed to end.

Now Lorelai knew and it was as real as it had ever been for Rory since the doctor had confirmed it to her a few weeks earlier, and Rory's brain would not allow her a second of rest. Slowly the despair and anxiety crept back in. Grunting in frustration, Rory pushed herself up in bed and reached for her phone.

Not for the first time in the last two months, she found herself staring at the same number in her contacts list. One she had meant to delete after that fateful morning at a bed and breakfast when Rory had decided it was time to cut the strings on her relationship with Logan Huntzberger.

She knew that she needed to tell Logan, that she owed him at least that much, just the knowledge that he was going to have a kid in the world in just a few months' time. It was only fair, even if she planned on doing this alone, but she knew Logan. Worse, she knew his family. There was a fear that lived deep inside of her of what Mitchum Huntzberger would do, what he was capable of, if word got back to him that Rory was carrying his grandchild.

Rory didn't want to be just another problem they threw money at. Worse, she didn't want her child to be taken away from her because of course, Rory had already decided that she was keeping it. That she was going through with the whole pregnancy. She couldn't imagine _not_ doing it. Maybe this knocked her a little further off course, but where would she be if Lorelai hadn't decided to put her whole life on hold to raise her? Hadn't sacrificed everything to be her mom?

Her screen went black, having been idle too long, and Rory shoved the phone under a pillow and threw herself back down on the bed. She hadn't quite mustered up enough courage to do what needed to be done, she still hadn't run through every potential scenario of a conversation with Logan about this yet. Maybe tomorrow, after some sleep, she could bring herself to make the call.

* * *

A knock on her window startled Rory awake. The light was too bright for her eyes, and it took a second to adjust. Someone was standing in her window. Her instinct should have been to scream, maybe to call the cops, but she just sat there and blinked the sleep out of her eyes until she could make out who her potential murderer might be.

It shouldn't have surprised her that it would be Jess, standing there with long hair slicked back and a brown paper bag of take-out food in his hands, but it did. What was he doing? Had she suddenly woken up in 2003? What a gift that would be, an opportunity to do certain things over again.

She had been thinking about that a lot lately, since starting her book, the mistakes she had made and what she wished she could do differently now that she was looking back at it with all the knowledge of the years and consequences that followed each regrettable decision.

Slowly pushing herself out of bed, she moved to open the window. "I'm getting a really eerie sense of déjà vu. Are you about to perform that felony you call a magic trick?"

"Luke sent me to bring you food," he motioned to the paper bag in his hands, the ghost of a smirk on his face showing that he had been amused by her comment, "I tried the door first, but…"

Rory have him an apologetic look, "I must have been out pretty hard. I'll let you in the back."

Jess had brought waffles with him, and for that Rory was eternally grateful. She wasn't sure how long she had been asleep, but just the smell of the delicious breakfast food had made her stomach grumble angrily. The first bite was heaven, and she made a moaning sound that caused Jess' eyebrow to jump up slightly. Rory shot him a look before he could open his mouth to comment, but both of them knew that he didn't need to. It would have been easy for her to guess what he would have said. Even after all these years, there were some things that would never change between them.

"You left pretty early last night," Jess pointed out, taking a sip of the coffee he had brought for them, "You missed Kirk and Petal's very disturbing slow dance at the end of the night."

"Oh, he did the same thing at the last Dance Marathon after mom and Luke finally defeated him."

"Wait, you're telling me your mom actually convinced _Luke_ to participate in the dance marathon?"

Rory nodded, "I have the whole thing on video."

Leaning over the table conspiratorially, Jess pointed a finger at her, "You better send me that." There was that rare Jess smile on his face that that Rory had always found to be contagious. She could see the wheels turning in his head for how he was going to use this to his to torture Luke. Over the years they had grown so close, Rory was glad to see that Jess had found some constant in his life.

"I will, I promise."

They fell into comfortable silence with each other as they ate. While they had never really been good at talking about the things that mattered when they were teenagers, they had always been good at just being with each other, quiet and contemplative. Of course, it never lasted long.

"Hey, Jess."

He looked up at her with that same, intense, look that he had given her from the very first day they had met. It made her stop for a second, hesitate. A wave of nerves and nausea washed over her, and she wasn't sure if it was due to the pregnancy, or what she was about to say.

"I just needed to ask…because I'm writing this book and it's about me and my mom and our lives…" Absently, she played with the cup of coffee, in her hands, all the words coming out at once and not at all, "And you were such a big part of all of it…"

"Write it all," he insisted, cutting her off, "The good and the bad. I can take it."

She smiled, appreciatively, "I think there's more good than bad."

"I hope so."

* * *

"I will never top this wedding!" Dramatically, Lorelai threw herself down on the couch next to Rory just as she pressed play on the latest episode _The Walking Dead_ they'd recorded. "All my future ex-husbands will leave me for this very reason, write that down in your book."

Rory laughed and moved closer to her mother, resting her head on her shoulders, "I'm sure Luke will be happy to know he got the best one of your thirteen future weddings."

"Thirteen future what?" Luke asked, wandering into the living room to join them on the couch, "Are we really watching this? You both cover your eyes through the whole thing and I have to explain the plot of the whole episode after."

"That, dear Luke," Lorelai smiled sweetly at her new husband, "Is what you agreed to when you married me yesterday." The two shared a look and under Luke's grumpy glare, Rory was sure she could see the smile threatening to sneak out on him at any second. She couldn't remember when she had ever seen him so happy. Actually, she couldn't remember when she had seen either of them this happy, really.

"We need more snacks," Rory announced suddenly, untangling herself from Lorelai and getting up off the couch, "Pop tarts and chips!"

"Ooh! The strawberry pop tarts, please!" her mother shouted as Rory disappeared into the kitchen, glancing behind her just in time to see Lorelai shift towards Luke on the couch, tucking herself under his arm as the pair lapsed into their habitual bickering about how she had just had a four course dinner how could she possible want more food? And besides, pop tarts were terrible for your health. It made Rory smile as she ducked out the back door and pulled her phone out of her pocket.

Maybe it wasn't courage she had been looking for in order to make this call, maybe it was just the reassurance that no matter what happened after she made it, she already had everything she needed right here. She had her mom, and Luke, who would be there for her no matter what. If her mom could raise her all on her own, Rory could do it, too.

Taking a deep breath, she finally pressed call on the number she had been avoiding for weeks.

He answered after three rings. "Ace?"

Her cheeks immediately flushed with color hearing his voice, and the sleepiness behind it. She hadn't calculated what time it would be in London before she called, how could she be so stupid? Her heart was in her throat, all the words she had been planning on saying flew right out of her mind.

"Ace?" Logan repeated, a tinge of worry sneaking into his voice this time, the sleep falling away. Rory could hear him on the other end, quietly shutting a door behind him so as not to wake his sleeping fiancée. Rory felt suddenly sick to her stomach. Who was she? How had she become this person? She could hardly recognize herself. "Rory, hey, talk to me. What's going on?"

"I'm sorry." All at once, the words came rushing out. "I know I ended things and I know I made it really clear that we shouldn't see or even talk to each other anymore, but I needed to tell you something because it's the fair and right thing to do. I would hate myself even more than I already do if I didn't tell you and you ended up finding out from reading my book or because some strange kid shows up on your doorstep one day claiming that you're their father.

And I'm not telling you because I want anything, from you either, or expect you to leave Odette. I don't. I know what we were, but I just thought…you should know..."

"Whoa, Ace, slow down. What are you saying?"

Her eyes stung, holding back tears. Resting a hand in her stomach, she sucked in a breath and let it out slowly.

"I'm pregnant."


	3. Tiny Terror

"Hey, Laurel, you're going to be-"

Rory stopped in her tracks, as she knocked on her daughter's door before swinging it open to find her fast asleep with a very familiar book laying open next to her in bed. She knew that she had given it to her for her birthday that year, but Laurel hadn't touched it yet. When Rory asked her about it, her daughter had just shrugged and said she wasn't actually ready to yet, and Rory didn't push. Mostly because she wasn't entirely sure she was ready for it yet, either.

There were things she had kept to herself for all these years, secrets she had kept from her daughter that she knew she was going to have to own up to. For a long time she had been sure that it was for the best, but looking at the light-haired sixteen year old sleeping so soundly in her bed, Rory was beginning to doubt herself. She truly hoped she had done the right thing.

"Laur," she nudged the sleeping girl gently, "Wake up, you need to get to school."

The teen groaned and rolled over in bed, brushing her hair back from her face, "What time is it?"

"Six-thirty. Come on, your dad made coffee."

Pushing herself up, Laurel regarded her mom careful. "Hey, mom?" Rory turned to face her, expression inscrutable in the shadow of the doorway now. "It's okay that I started reading it, right?"

"Of course,." Her mother was nodding her head, but Laurel could sense her hesitation. She _knew_ her mother, knew her looks, and knew when she was keeping something from her. "I just always thought I'd have more time before you did, you grew up too fast."

It was hard not to roll her eyes at her mom when she said stuff like that. She was only sixteen, it didn't feel like she had grown up fast at all. "I just started thinking it was time, with me going to Chilton and all. Everyone always seems to think they know you because they've read it, I want to know what they do."

Bright blue eyes met bright blue and slowly, Rory nodded her head. "I get it." Turning to walk away, the older Gilmore paused for just a second and turned back, "You can come talk to me about anything you read in there, you know that, right?"

"I know."

"Good, now up and at it. You're babysitting your brother tonight. Dad and I have a meeting."

With an audible moan, Laurel threw herself back against her bed and covered her face with a pillow. Of course she would be on Tiny Terror duty, it wasn't like she had a life of her own to lead.

* * *

"Laurel?"

The voice startled her, causing her to jump a little as she looked up from the book for her English class she had quietly been absorbed in for the ten minutes as she waited for class to start. Standing above her was likely the most beautiful boy she had ever seen. He had dark green eyes and red hair, freckles that covered his nose. Her breath caught in her throat. She knew she was supposed to answer, but right now she wasn't sure she even knew how to speak anymore.

"Uh…you are Laurel, right?"

She blinked again and then nodded her head, clearing her throat before she was able to speak. "Yeah, that's me. Laurel Gilmore, I'm new."

He laughed, and it sounded like music to her. When had she become such a dumb girl around boys? Back in New York she had been sharp and quick, running circles around the boys who had showed interest in her, keeping them on her toes. Now she felt like a bashful school girl.

The uniform probably didn't help, either.

"I know," he nodded, "That's why I'm here. I'm Caleb, I'm supposed to be your lab partner."

As if she wasn't bad enough at science, she was definitely going to flunk now because it was obvious she wasn't going to be able to think clearly around him. Get it together, Gilmore. She mentally kicked herself before flashing a smile at the redheaded boy. "Well, have your work cut out for you," Laurel found her voice finally, "I'm not great at the science stuff."

"It's a good thing you have me, then." Was he flirting? Laurel felt butterflies in her stomach, she really hoped that he was flirting with her. "We can get together after school, if you wanted, to study."

Laurel didn't miss a beat. "I'd love that." Then she remembered she had to watch her brother and sighed heavily. "But I can't tonight, I'm babysitting the Tiny Terror."

"Tiny Terror?" Caleb's browed furrowed together in confusion.

"Oh," her cheeks burned red with embarrassment, "My brother, Oliver. He's nine."

"Another time then," he answered coolly just as the other students filed into the room and the conversation came to a halt as they both turned to face the front of the class.

So, maybe this new school wasn't _all_ bad.

* * *

" _Ollie_!"

Somewhere between dinner and bed time, her little brother had decided that a game of hide and seek would be fun and had vanished on her quietly and suddenly. She swore, he lived to torture her.

In a past life, she must have done something terrible to deserve this as punishment. She had never asked for a brother, but somehow she had ended up saddled with one who liked to think he was David Copperfield anyway.

She had once tried to sell him at a carnival that Grandma Emily had taken them to in Nantucket when she was twelve. Her parents hadn't really appreciated that, despite Laurel insisting that she could have gotten top dollar for him. And besides, she had tried to argue, her mom had been an only child growing up and turned out fine, why did Laurel have to be a big sister? She got grounded for a month.

At least Lorelai had found it a little funny. Her grandmother had snuck her ice cream in her room and told her that it was okay not to like Oliver right now, but that one day he would be a great ally and friend. Laurel still didn't completely believe her. Grandma Lorelai had never had any siblings, either.

She had warmed up to him a little over the years though and the nickname that she and her friends had given him the second he had learned how to walk, Tiny Terror, had almost become an affectionate one. But tonight she had given up an opportunity to spend time with a really cute boy who wanted to help her study science to watch him, and Oliver had decided to disappear on her. So, she figured she could be forgiven if she had no patience to find him endearing tonight, and even less so when she discovered the kitchen door flung wide open.

 _Of course_ he would run away on her.

There was only one person she could call to get help her out of this. Even if they were in Stars Hollow and there was very little trouble a nine year old boy could really get into in a town where everyone knew him by name, but Laurel figured she should call in reinforcements anyway.

"Grandma? He's gone again."

"Anthea Anka and the Great Grandma Gilmore are on the case! We'll be right there."

"Paul Anka and Emily would be so proud at how far their offspring have come," she quipped right back, "I'm putting the coffee on as we speak."

"Good girl."

While she might not always like her little brother very much, she didn't want anything bad to happen to him still. So she breathed a sigh of relief as she hung up the phone, knowing that with Lorelai's help, everything was going to be alright. There was not a thing in the world her grandmother couldn't fix.

Or if there was, Grandpa Luke was usually pretty handy with his tool box.

* * *

"Maybe he was kidnapped by Gypsies."

"That's not funny, Lorelai."

They had been looking for Ollie for the last hour and had eventually had to call in reinforcements in the shape of her grandfather. Luke had a stressed look about him that made Laurel worried that he was one more failed attempt at locating her brother from calling up her parents and telling them what was happening. Knots formed in her stomach, she hated letting her parents down. They had trusted her not to let anything happen to Oliver.

It was worse that this wasn't the first time she had lost him. That honor went to the thirteen year old version of herself back in New York who had been supposed to take him to first grade on her way to school and had instead forgotten him on the subway. Her mother had gotten a very distressed call from a stranger who had found a seven year old Oliver wandering around Central Park and called the number written on the inside of his school bag.

In her defense, she _had_ told him to follow her when they got off the subway, he had just chosen not to.

"He's got to be around here somewhere," she insisted, her desperation seeping out now.

"Oh, hey, kiddo," her grandmother passed Luke Anthea Anka's leash and wrapped her arm around Laurel, "It's not your fault. Your brother's just trying to cope with moving just as much as you are, running away is just his way of dealing with it. Your parents know that."

"But I was supposed to watch him and I didn't want to because I could have had a study date with a really cute boy from school, so I wasn't paying attention to him like I should have been and now he's gone!" She let it all out in one breath, stopping in her tracks and burying her face in Lorelai's neck.

"I'm just going to check the diner again," Luke curtly excused himself, taking the dog with him, uncomfortable with the idea of his granddaughter taking about boys. Even if she had been doing it for years already.

Lorelai just wrapped her arms tightly around her granddaughter and squeezed her, "So, there's a boy?"

"His name is Caleb and he's gorgeous, Grandma. Like underwear model gorgeous. And smart."

"Ah, Chilton breeds them well," Lorelai laughed, "Smart and beautiful. I'm almost sure they're all made in one of Paris's labs these days. Have you told your mom about the boy yet?"

"No. Not yet."

" _Yes_!" Lorelai's outburst would have startled anyone who wasn't related to her. Instead, Laurel just laughed at her almost-namesake and shook her head. "I can't wait to tell my dear darling daughter that I got to be confided in first about boy stuff. I'm the cool, hip grandma! This is karma for the time she didn't tell me she got her first kiss!"

"Grandma, you know I already had my first kiss, right?"

"I know, sweetie, you take after me." Linking her arm through Laurel's, Lorelai gave her a little nudge, "Come on, I have an idea where we can find your brother."

Sure enough, Lorelai had been right.

Oliver was curled up on a bench at the bus stop, jacket draped over him like a blanket as he slept. Looking at her brother lying there with his dark hair falling into his face, Laurel couldn't help but feel guilty for the way she had been treating him. Especially lately. She wasn't the only one who had had the carpet swept out from under her when they had moved to Stars Hollow, Oliver's had too.

"Hey Tiny," she nudged him gently, watching him squirm and stretch on the bench under him as he stirred, "Let's go home." Reaching out to take his hand, she waited for him to accept it.

Blinking up in surprise at his sister, it took Oliver a second to nod his head and lace his fingers through hers. "Okay." He was exhausted and homesick, but so was Laurel. Maybe from now on, she could try and be a little nicer to him. They were family, after all.


	4. Drawing Lines

Rory and Logan had been sitting across from one another in the little café somewhere between Stars Hollow and Hartford for the past half hour. Neutral ground, she had told Lorelai when asked For the most part, Rory had been sitting silently while intensely staring at the untouched cup of coffee in front of her. Was she even allowed to drink coffee while pregnant? She hadn't really thought about it until now. If she was being honest with herself, she hadn't thought much about any of it. There weren't any concrete plans in place, she had no idea how she was going to make any of this work.

She could feel herself start to spiral. If you tugged at one string, the rest unraveled rapidly.

Without a paying job, she wasn't sure how she was going to be able to afford doctor's appointments and all the things that a baby would need, like clothes and a crib, especially if she was going to turn down whatever money Logan was surely about to offer her. Which she was. There was no way to take it and feel good about herself afterwards.

"You're killing me here, Ace." Logan's voice startled her out of her thoughts, her blue eyes flickering up to meet his brown. There was that eve-present impish look in his eyes, but it was the undertone of seriousness that unsettled her. It always had when it came to him. "You have to say something, kid."

"I know," she sighed, "I'm just…freaking out a little."

For just a second, she paused and watched him, trying to get a feel for what was going through his mind. The wheels were turning slowly. His lips parted slightly as if to say something and she swore that she could almost _hear_ the question forming on the tip of his tongue.

Her whole body stiffened. Sucking in a breath, she prepared for the blow to her ego, to her pride, which was surely coming her way when he asked if she was sure it was his. It would tear her apart.

Then Logan blinked, and it was gone. Rory could feel her whole body relax in relief. He had had the power to break her heart with three words, but had chosen not to. She was grateful for that, at least.

"What do you need, Rory?" Leaning forward, he reached out and gently touched her forearm. A warmth rushed over her, and she could feel herself melt a little at the physical connection between them. It would be much easier to allow herself fall under his charm again. So much could be easier if she did.

Taking a breath, she stuck to her guns. "Nothing, Logan. I really just thought you deserved to know."

This obviously hadn't been the answer that he had been looking for. "I can get you some money, a place to live? Just name it and it's yours."

Willing herself to look him straight in the eyes, Rory squared her shoulders and lifted her head high, "We're not in Vegas anymore, Logan. You're getting married, and I'm going to raise this baby on my own. Like my mom raised me. It's what I want. It's what's right." Letting out a long, slow breath, her eyes quickly dropped down to examine the tabletop. She found it impossible to keep looking at him.

"What if I want to be a part of it?" The question surprised her. She allowed herself to peak up at him again. His dark eyes intensely focused, determined, "This is my kid too, don't I deserve a chance?"

It was hard to argue against his point. Of course he deserved a chance. They had created this child growing inside of her together, after all. Could Rory really let her kid grow up not knowing who her dad was? Her own dad had always been a part of her life, she had always known him. "You're right. You do."

The smile that spread across Logan's face then caught her off-guard. She hadn't expected any kind of genuine excitement from him. In no scenario had she considered that Logan might genuinely want to be a part of this with his whole future mapped out for him, with a fiancée waiting for him back at his apartment in London.

"On one condition," she added. Her voice trembled, her resolve weakening for just a second before she gathered her courage. "You have to tell Odette. If you're going to be a father, she deserves to know."

It took Logan a second, swirling the water in the glass in front of him, before he nodded, "Deal."

* * *

After the success of her meeting with Logan a week earlier about the pregnancy, the wedding invitation that arrived in the mail that morning was like a slap in the face to Rory. It had the stench of Mitchum Huntzberger all over it. Somehow he had found out that Logan had flown stateside to meet her, and had taken it on himself to remind Rory where she stood in his son's life.

Logan's father had always had a way of making her feel so small. It was unnerving, especially as a grown woman, for someone to still have that kind of power over her. Logan had assured her that there was no possible way he could know about the baby, not yet at least, when she had called him. He was planning on telling Odette first, then they would deal with his family.

Her stomach rolled at the thought. She hoped she had made the right call.

"Hey babe, Luke and I are going to get some ice cream. Do you-" Lorelai knocked on her door, forcing Rory in her chair to face her stopping Lorelai cold in the middle of her sentence. "What happened?"

Rory shook her head, holding up the invitation for Lorelai to see as she walked over and took it in hand.

"Wow, that kid has balls, inviting you to his wedding." There was a flash of anger in the older Gilmore's tone, Rory recognized it as it being Lorelai going into Mama Bear mode. Her heart swelled. She appreciated her mom's consistent protective nature right now more than ever.

"It was his dad's idea of a joke, I think. Shame the mistress."

"Ugh, I never thought anyone could beat Christopher's dad," Lorelai made a face, "But it's good to see that the world can clearly continue surprising me."

Rory took a deep breath, closed her eyes. "I did the right thing though, didn't I? Agreeing to let Logan be a part of this?"

Lorelai moved to sit down on the edge of Rory's bed, leaning in to take her daughter's hands. "Could you have imagined growing up not knowing who your dad was?" Quietly, Rory shook her head. "Yeah, I couldn't either, that's why I gave Christopher the choice to show up, to be there.

"Maybe he let us down a few times, but he did his best. He was there when it really mattered. And boy, does your dad ever love you, kid. I'm sure he would move the moon if you asked him to."

Sliding off the chair and onto the bed next to Lorelai, Rory leaned her head on her mother's shoulder, "I don't think I could do any of this without you, mom."

"You couldn't, you're insanely lucky to have me." Digging her elbow playfully into Rory's rib, Lorelai nodded towards the bedroom door. "Now come on, ice cream!"

"What does Luke actually think we're going to get?" the younger girl asked, throwing the wedding invitation absently into the trash bin as she got up to follow her mother, "Because I know it can't be ice cream."

"Food for Paul Anka. Which reminds me, we should probably pick up food for Paul Anka, too!"

* * *

"I don't understand what's so hard about making a spicy cranberry sauce with pinot noir!"

"What happened regular cranberry sauce? Everyone likes regular cranberry sauce, Sookie!"

"I'm a chef, Luke, not a charlatan! I'm not just going to serve guests cranberry sauce from a can!"

From just beyond the Inn's dining room where she sat now, Rory could hear Sookie and Luke arguing in the kitchen over the Thanksgiving meal they were serving in just a couple hours' time. She had placed herself at the kid's table with Stevie and Kwan for the time being, playing an exciting game of Pie Face with them. Already she had gotten splat twice, sending the twins into a fit of giggles.

Her dress was ruined already, but this was the most fun she'd had in a while at least.

"You can never leave me again," Lane plopped herself down in the empty seat next to Rory. "The half hour you've been playing with them has been the longest we've gone here without them breaking something that your mom always lies and insists really isn't a big deal, but then Michel still glares at us angrily all night afterwards anyway."

"That's just Michel though," Rory pointed out. It was her turn again and she grimaced slightly, anticipating another handful of cream to her face. She was safe, this round. "I think his face might be just be a permanent glare at this point."

"It's just good to have you back."

"I'm not back," she reminded her best friend, "This is just temporary, until I figure some things out."

"Have you heard from Logan since the whole…?" Rory shook her head. "Wow, so he hasn't told her yet, then. Do you think he's going to chicken out?"

"No, I don't know. I'm just kind of getting used to the idea of him being around, so I hope not."

"Aunt Rory, it's your turn again!" Kwan complained, pushing the contraption towards her, "Come on!"

Lane shot them a look. "Give Rory a break, go find your father." Without another word, the boys scrambled off their chairs and disappeared from the dining room. Raising her eyebrows at the petite Korean woman next to her, Rory cocked her head slightly. "I know, that was very Mama of me."

"It was scary, I'm impressed."

The front door of the inn flew open. Tim and Gabriela McMaster appeared first, a bickering Doyle and Paris followed right after. Rory and Lane turned to look at them, then back at each other. "I probably shouldn't have invited both of them," Rory scrunched her nose, "But I refuse to choose sides."

"I still can't believe they broke up, they were like this intensely terrifying power couple."

"I know. I'm still not sure it's permanent. Paris is just…Paris."

When they looked back Doyle had disappeared and Paris had locked onto them. Lane leaned over, conspiratorial. "Danger, incoming."

Sur enough, Paris Geller was making a beeline straight for them. "Lane. Rory. Happy Thanksgiving."

"Happy Thanksgiving, Paris." Rory was glad to see her old friend. Glad to have so many people she cared about under one roof here today. It made her feel safe and warm, no matter what happened she knew that _this_ was her family. They would be there for her, and her baby, no matter what.

Almost instinctively, her hand moved to rest on the slight swell of her belly. Which was a mistake. She should have known better, Paris was like a shark. "Rory, you're pregnant? Who did you go to? I told you to come to me first, you should have come to me first!"

"Paris, you remember that these things sometimes happen naturally, right?" Rory asked, slightly amused.

The tiny, fierce woman blinked, taken aback for a second and then softened. "Are you okay? Who's the father?" It was in these moments when Paris humanized herself that Rory loved her the most.

"Logan."

"Huntzberger? Wow, I didn't know you two kept in touch."

"We did, for a while. It's over now."

The blonde nodded her head slowly, "How very Lorelai of you."

"I hope so," Rory said quietly, glancing behind her at her mother busily fluttering from guest to guest.

* * *

The breeze was cool on her skin as she sat on the front steps of the Dragonfly Inn, the laughter and chatter of her loved ones soothing background noise as she took a minute to herself. Dinner had been wonderful, but at some point between the third and fourth course, Rory had started to feel mildly claustrophobic. She had needed space, air.

Heavy footsteps fell on the porch behind her, but didn't turn to look until the person was standing just out of her line of site. When she did finally tilt her head upward, she was greeted with a steaming cup of homemade hot cocoa. A slow smile crept onto her face as she accepted it, "Hey."

"Hey." Jess moved to lean on a pillar, his hands stuffed into his pockets. He had looked good tonight, a clean button-up shirt on under his leather jacket. The effort had not gone unnoticed.

They lapsed into silence for just a moment, Rory bringing the mug gently up to her lips and blowing at the steam. "Thanks."

"No problem."

It took her a second to prepare herself for it, but finally she lifted her head to look at him again. "So, did Luke tell you?"

"I heard whispers around town," he shrugged. "I figured you'd tell me yourself, if you wanted to."

"I did."

Rory waited to see if he was going to ask her about it, but she knew he wouldn't. This was Jess. He didn't often pry into her personal life. Normally, it just came spilling out of her whenever she was around him. "Still think I'm a contender now?"

"You're a Gilmore, an unstoppable force." There was affection in his tone that made her pulse quicken slightly. The words meant more to her coming from him than they would have anyone else.

"I'm really glad you came."

"Doula begged me." Sometimes, she could see the teenage Jess in moments like this. The kid who still pretended that he was too cool for the town he had come to view as being more home than anywhere he had ever lived. He had never been able to fool her, though. She saw right through him. "I'll see you inside."

He turned to head back inside but stopped, turning back to face her once again. "Make sure he deserves you."

The statement caught her off-guard, her eyes widening. Just as she opened her mouth to tell her that there wasn't anyone, that she was doing this on her own, a car coming up the Inn's gravel drive-way distracted her for a just a second. When she turned back to him, Jess was gone. She sighed and settled on the step again, wondering quietly to herself why it mattered so much to her that Jess knew that.

A car door slammed up ahead of her, there was the crunch of footsteps approaching, but Rory didn't look up. Not until she heard a familiar voice, one that absolutely did not belong in Stars Hollow.

"Hey, Ace, can we talk?"


	5. Kiss and Run

The locker door slammed down hard as Laurel attempted to open it, causing her to jump at least three feet in the air. She turned to face the person responsible with a sigh of indignation, she had really thought that things might not be so bad between her and Asia.

"How did you do it?" The other girl demanded, her dark hair pulled back into a tight ponytail, and arms crossed stiffly over her chest as she scowled at Laurel.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Laurel didn't have the time, or patience, to deal with this today. If she wanted to make it home on time to help with the kick off of the Autumn Festival, her first in Stars Hollow, she needed to catch the very next bus back to Stars Hollow.

This wasn't normally the kind of thing that got excited for, but the buzz of small town excitement happened to be mildly contagious. Especially when it was all that Sarah had been able to talk about for the better part of the last week. Besides, reading her mother's book had started to give her a different perspective on the small town. Maybe it was more charming than she gave it credit for.

"Caleb Grant," Asia said pointedly. "In all the years that I've known him, he's never taken an interest in a single girl we've gone to school with, then you waltz in and all of a sudden he's making cartoon heart-eyes."

Laurel frowned, "We're just lab partners. Look, if you're into him I can-"

Asia rolled her eyes, cutting her off. "I'm not into Caleb Grant. I just want to know how to get someone to like you."

"Oh." It hadn't occurred Laurel at all that her rival for valedictorian might have trouble in the dating department.

Asia was beautiful with her green eyes and angular features. High school boys were still relatively shallow. How did the old saying go again? You trapped more flies with honey than vinegar and Asia Tudor was hardly sweet and docile.

Laurel still remembered a time that her Aunt Paris had once berated a man who had called her pretty on a metro. She could only assume that Asia might be just as difficult to get along with. Maybe she _could_ help, or at least try to before she potentially lost a finger in a horrific locker slamming accident.

"What are you doing tonight?"

The question had come out of her mouth before her brain had even fully processed it. Turning back towards her locker, Laurel re-opened it to retrieve her books. Including her mother's. She taken to carrying a copy of it everywhere with her, despite making slow progress.

"What does that have to do with getting a boy?"

"I was thinking that maybe you'd want to come to Stars Hollow with me. We have this Autumn Festival kicking off tonight and you can talk to some boys who don't have a predisposition to be absolutely terrified of you. You can meet my grandmother, too, she gave me all my boy tips."

"And your mom?" Asia pointed to the back cover of Laurel's copy of _Gilmore Girls_ where a much younger version of her mother stared out at them with her piercing blue eyes. "She had a few boys throwing themselves at her feet back in the day."

"My mom?" Laurel looked down at her book, brow furrowed. She had never really considered her mom as some sort of romantic guide. Her parents had known each other since they were teenagers and were so sickeningly in love, she could hardly imagine them with anyone else. "Yeah, my mom's going to be there too, I guess. She moonlights as the editor of the town paper, so she has to write up a piece on the festival, anyway."

"Fine. I'll come to your Autumn Festival or whatever, then!"

It took all of her willpower not to roll her eyes at Asia just then, finding it unbelievable that she had managed to make it seem like she was doing Laurel a favor by going. Biting her tongue was for the best, anyway, she needed things to at least be civil between them if she wanted to survive her time at Chilton.

"Did I hear something about an Autumn Festival? That sounds pretty cool."

The butterflies that had become awfully familiar to Laurel in the last couple of weeks started to flutter nervously in her stomach as she looked up to see Caleb approaching his locker. Their names were so close that he ended up being just three doors down from her, which was fortuitous. It was also one of the worst things that could have happened because it meant that Laurel needed to look good first thing in the morning every morning in fear of potentially running into him on her way to homeroom.

Flashing him a smile, she flipped her hair over her shoulders, "It is. You should come, too."

Caleb returned the grin and nodded his head, "I think I just might. See you there Laurel, Asia."

"That!" Asia near-shouted, pointing at Laurel accusingly as Caleb walked away, "Teach me that!"

* * *

Watching Asia hang on her mother's every word was a surreal, out of body experience for her. From the day her family had arrived in Stars Hollow, Laurel felt like she finally understood what life was like for celebrities with the way that people fawned over them or talked as if they really _knew_ them. It had happened from time to time when her mother met a fan in New York too, but it had been rarer.

They had been anonymous in the middle of the most populous city in the United States.

In Stars Hollow, they were treated like kings.

It didn't help at all that she was on edge tonight as it were, glancing over her shoulder ever few seconds in hopes of spotting Caleb in the crowd. He had said that he would be there, had even texted for directions. Asia had been here an hour already though, and there was still no sign of the tall, gorgeous red head.

"Mom, I'm going to find some candy apples."

Her mother's eyes locked with hers for just a second and Laurel could read the desperate plea for help. With a wry grin, Laurel mouthed the word 'sorry' before slipping into the crowd. She maybe felt _a little_ bad for abandoning her mother. Just a little. Some defiant part of her thought that it served her right though, for writing a book about her life for the world to read. Laurel hadn't even been born yet for the timeline of the book, but it still followed her everywhere anyway. Living up to the legacy of the Gilmore women was not easy.

"Hey."

Looking up, she was met with pretty green eyes that were smiling at her. Instant butterflies. "Hey."

"This place is pretty cool, you live here?"

Laurel nodded, "Yeah, my family moved here this summer from New York. My mom really wanted to be closer to her mom again. It took a while to convince my dad though, that's for sure."

"Do you miss it at all, New York?" He fell into step with her as they slowly weaved through the center of town together.

"All the time."

There were dozens of eyes watching them, it was unsettling. Everyone in town wanted to know what the prodigal granddaughter was doing, and who she was talking to. More than anything, she wanted to find a quiet place to be with Caleb. "Hey, do you want to see my favorite place in this whole town?"

When Caleb nodded, she took his hand and dragged him across the street to Luke's Diner.

The lights inside were all off. Her grandfather was surely being dragged around the festival with her grandmother, but Laurel had swiped the spare key from home. At night, when everyone went to bed, she liked to sneak into the apartment above the diner to read. She still hadn't gotten used to sleeping in her new room yet. It was the only spot she ever got any privacy.

"This is my grandfather's place, he's had it forever."

"Should we be here?" Caleb's voice had dropped into a whisper as they crept in quietly.

"Not really."

There was a spark of mischief in her eyes. Some rules were made for breaking, especially when you were trying to show off for a cute boy. "We won't stay long though. I just wanted to show you this place. It's kind of the closest thing to home in this town for me. I like coming here to think."

"That's pretty cool. I have a place like that too…"

Laurel looked up at him as he spoke and noticed that he was at least a head taller than her, she didn't think that she had ever kissed someone that much taller than her before. She blinked, and realized that Caleb was staring at her, expectantly. While she had been distracting imagining what it might be like to kiss him, Laurel had completely missed everything he had said. Now, he was waiting for a response.

So, she did the first thing that she could think of. She leaned up and kissed him.

When she settled back on her feet, she could feel herself blush furiously. Thank God it was dark in the diner. Putting a hand to her lips she looked up at the shocked expression on Caleb's and felt suddenly and overwhelmingly embarrassed. "Oh…I'm so sorry…"

Before she could even register what she was doing, she turned and ran right out of the diner.

* * *

"So you kissed him?"

"Yeah."

"And then you ran away?"

"Yup."

"Well, you are definitely my daughter."

"That's real comforting mom, thank you." Laurel rolled her eyes and threw herself back onto her bed, covering her face with a pillow. "Is Grandpa mad at me?"

"Your grandmother talked him down." Rory crawled into the bed next to her daughter and stroked her head gently. "Did you read about my first kiss yet?"

"In the book? No."

"I'll tell you the whole story, no pseudonyms, if you want to hear it." Uncovering her face, Laurel looked at her mother, and nodded eagerly. She liked the idea that her mom was going to give her something that none of her readers got, the unedited truth. Rory didn't talk a lot about her past with her, the prospect of getting information first hand was more exciting to her than reading it.

"The year I started at Chilton was the year I met Dean," Rory started, "His family had just moved to Stars Hollow and he was the first boy to show real interest in me. Grandma and I actually got into a fight about him, too. I almost gave up Chilton because I thought that if I went, he'd find someone more interesting. Somone with more experience because up until that point I had zero. I really didn't know what I was doing, flirting wise, so the first time he kissed me, I freaked out."

"And ran away?"

"Taking cornstarch with me."

"Cornstarch?"

Rory nodded, "We were in the middle of Doose's Market and I had been pretending to look at cornstarch instead of him when he noticed me, and then everything happened so fast, I took the cornstarch with me when I ran."

Laurel couldn't help it, she burst into laughter. So, apparently Rory Gilmore wasn't as perfect as some people made her out to be and running away from a kiss was a very Gilmore thing to do. It made her feel a little better about the disaster with Caleb.

Tucking herself under her mother's arm, she rested her head on Rory's shoulder. "Hey, mom?"

"Yeah?"

"Is Dean the same Dean who's Sarah's dad now?"

"Yeah, he is."

"Oh man," she yawned and closed her eyes, "I can't wait to tell Sarah our parents kissed. Gross!"

* * *

Rory dropped herself down on the couch next to her husband and leaned her head against his chest. "She kissed a boy and then ran away." There was laughter in her voice as she turned her eyes up to look at him only to see that his grin matched hers. "Like mother, like daughter, right?"

"She didn't really stand a chance."

"Luke thinks she's been sneaking into the diner late at night. "

"I'll talk to her."

"We're going to have to tell her soon."

"I know."

"She's going to hate us, isn't she? For keeping this from her."

"For a little bit, maybe, but it'll be okay."

There was a creak from the top of the stairs, but when the couple turned to look, no one was there.


	6. Of Heartbreak and Coffee Cups

"Are you serious?"

"It's ridiculous, I know. I'm sorry. I don't even think it stands up legally."

"You're serious."

"This isn't me."

"Isn't it?"

"I wouldn't do this to you, you know that."

"But you are. _You_ are doing this to me, Logan."

To accentuate her point, Rory waved the papers that he had given her himself just minutes ago. Papers that asked her to relinquish any claim her child might have on the Huntzberger name. It made her feel worse than she did already, dirty. As if she had done this all for money, as if her unborn child was just another chip to play for her to play in some kind of twisted poker game.

"You didn't want the money, anyway. They just want it in writing now, then they'll leave you alone. It's not going to change anything."

The threat of tears stung her eyes. "It changes _everything_ , Logan. How are we supposed to have any kind of relationship, how are you supposed to get to know your kid, with this hanging over us?"

Their eyes met and Rory understood. "Oh. You're not."

"Not unless…There's another way." He had a plan. There was always a plan, a scheme, with Logan. Rory tilted her head, willing to at least hear him out.

He pulled a ring out from his pocket. "Marry me."

Her cup of hot chocolate was sitting back on the abandoned porch of the Inn a few meters up, still steaming in the cold November air. She wished she had it with her now. Not because she thought she could still stomach drinking it, but because it would have given her something to occupy her hands with while this man she loved dearly, the father of her unborn child, pulled the rug out from under her.

She was going to be sick. Bile rose up in her chest, and she moved a hand to cover her mouth.

Some quiet voice in the back of her head told her that she should have expected this. After all, hadn't her entire relationship with Logan Huntzberger been one giant ultimatum from the start?

"I'm such an idiot. How did I fall for this again?"

He looked taken aback by the comment, by the bitterness behind it. Rory didn't know how he could be. Had he forgotten everything that had led them to this precise moment, to _this_ proposal? Nothing had changed at all from the first time he had tried to give her a ring. It was still all or nothing with Logan. Zero or one-hundred, nothing in between. No room for compromise.

Except this time, it wasn't that Rory wasn't ready to give him everything. She wasn't willing to.

"No. That's not an option."

"Hey, come on, how can you say that? We're good together." He took a step forward and put his hands on both of her shoulders, leaning down so that they were eye-level with each other. "I love you, and if you marry me, we can make this all go away. My family can't say anything about you, or our baby. We can do this. You trust me?"

On some level, she knew that Logan really believed what he was saying. That he thought that this was a grand romantic gesture, that he could sweep her off her feet by throwing away whatever dynastic plan his parents had in store for him and choosing her. In some ways, it really was everything he had intended it to be, too.

Some past version of Rory might even have fallen back into his arms after that little speech, but it was too late. She had changed so much in the last year, and this version of herself knew better, knew that she and Logan would never be able to make it work. That starting a relationship on an ultimatum would only lead to disaster. She couldn't count on him. Worst of all, she couldn't trust him.

"I don't."

The pained look on Logan's face broke her heart in pieces. Everything was such a mess, and she knew that there was no way back from this moment for them. This was it, for good.

"We don't work, Logan. We've tried and we're just…not good for each other. I mean, you're proposing to me while you're still engaged to someone else. You got me _pregnant_ while you were engaged to someone else! Don't you see how unhealthy this is?"

"But it's you I want, Rory."

"No." She sighed and shook her head, "You want me because you can't have me. You want me as an act of rebellion against your life, but that doesn't work for me anymore, Logan. Stand up for yourself."

For just a moment, she could see the hurt, scared child inside of Logan. Then, in a blink, it was gone. "Fine, have it your way. Just sign the papers and you'll be rid of me for good then."

Biting her tongue to keep herself from crying, Rory accepted the pen and painstakingly signed her name on the dotted line, as requested. It was only after Logan snatched it back and walked away that she allowed herself to let go and release a hollow, broken sob.

* * *

When Lorelai found Rory some time later, she was sitting in a crumpled heap in the driveway of the Dragonfly Inn. All of the light had been drained out of her, tears stained her cheek. Lorelai ached for her daughter, and on a selfish level, she ached for herself too. She always felt like she had failed as a mother whenever she wasn't able to protect Rory from this kind of pain. She had tried to do everything right by her, but even now she could see herself at sixteen so clearly in Rory. The circle of life really sucked.

"Aw kid, what happened?" Lowering herself onto the ground next to her daughter, Lorelai wrapped her arm around Rory and pulled her in against her body.

No sooner than Rory's head had touched her shoulder, did the sobbing start again. "He's gone. For good."

Lorelai didn't need much more explanation that that. She knew, in her bones, what her daughter was talking about. And she knew that there was nothing that she could do to make it better. Not right now. Instead, she just held her as she cried.

Then, slipping her phone out of her pocket, she called her husband. "Hey. We need you."

* * *

It wasn't until she had watched Logan walk away from her last night that Rory had begun to really feel the full weight of the responsibility that lay ahead of her now. She had really believed that she had been fully prepared to do this on her own, but some part of her had always expected Logan to be there. Now, he was gone and there was an ache in her chest that would probably never go away. Her child was going to grow up without a father. That was a wrong that she would never be able to right.

Choking back her tears, she pushed herself up in her bed. Despite the exhaustion that racked her bones, Rory had barely slept. She felt as though she was in some kind of waking nightmare and not for the first time, she wondered how she had gotten to this place. Maybe she would be better off spending the rest of her pregnancy hiding out in her room.

The smell of warm waffles wafted in from the kitchen though, causing her stomach to grumble hungrily. She couldn't avoid the outside world forever, both she and the baby needed sustenance.

When she opened her bedroom door, she was surprised to find Luke shuffling around the kitchen by himself. "Your mom's sleeping," he called over his shoulder, reading her mind. "Sit down and have some breakfast."

Obediently, Rory slid into her seat at the kitchen table, silently watching Luke work. There were moments when it was still strange, no matter how long he and her mom had been together, to see him like this in her childhood home. Stranger still was how normal it seemed too, how right.

A hot cup of coffee was placed down in front of her without a word and Rory's blue eyes flashed up to meet Luke's gaze. "I looked it up, you can have a little." Rory was struck by the gesture and even more appreciative. She had _really_ needed this cup of coffee today.

"You're the best!"

Luke shrugged it off, "Just don't tell your mom."

"I promise," she said, lifting the mug to her lips carefully. She hadn't touched a drop since finding out that she was pregnant, so she had every intention of savoring this cup.

When she looked up at Luke again, she noticed now that he seemed more nervous than she remembered him being in a long time. If there had been a little more space in the kitchen, Rory was convinced that he would have been pacing. Instead, he moved to busy himself with the waffles he had been making before Rory walked in. There was something on his mind. She felt a pang of worry.

"Is everything okay, Luke?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, yeah. Everything's fine. It's just…your mom told me about what happened. With Logan."

"Oh." The pain in her chest intensified. She wasn't ready to talk about it.

"I know I'm not your dad, but I just wanted you to know that I'm here to help, if you ever need anything," Luke continued, finally turning toward her. "No matter what, you've got me and your mom. And I know your room here is a little small for a baby, so I was thinking… If you needed more space, when the baby comes, well, I still have the apartment above the diner. It's yours, if you want it."

Rory blinked, completely stunned. Luke's gesture meant so much to her, and she felt like such a lousy writer right now for not being able to express her gratitude in words. Instead, she just stood up and moved around the table to hug him, hiding her face in his flannel shirt so that he couldn't see that she was crying.


	7. Don't Spoil the Ending

To distract herself from thinking about the conversation she had overheard between her parents, Laurel had made a game out of her mom's book. Since everyone, with the exception of her mother and Grandmother, had an alias it was now her mission to decode each and every one of them.

Some were easy to figure out, like she knew that her Aunt Lane's character had been named after Maureen Tucker from the Velvet Underground. Others had been a bit more difficult. She'd had to ask her mother why she had chosen the name Alex for Sarah's dad after Google had come back with over nine million results.

"It's from The Donna Reed Show," her mom had explained. Not that it had helped her understand at all. Even though she knew what it meant in the context of her mother's relationship with Mr. Forester, the reference was too dated for a sixteen year old Laurel to fully grasp.

At the end of the day though, she just wasn't able to shake off the knowledge that her parents were hiding something. Something big enough that her mom worried Laurel was going to hate them. The anxiety overwhelmed her every time she started to think about it.

So she grabbed her mother's book and flipped to where she had left off, hoping to put off dealing with her feelings a little longer. Roland's nephew Jack had just moved to town and was stirring up trouble in everyone's life. Laurel knew bits of this story already, had heard variations of it over the years.

She also knew as fact that her mother still had that very copy of _Howl_ , the one with the notes written in the margin, tucked on a shelf in her room. It was one of Laurel's favorites. She had thumbed through every book her parents owned, and there were a lot, but few that had stuck out the way that one had.

A knock at her door distracted her from the parting words in the scene between Jack and Rory.

"Reading anything good?"

"Just some lame teen love story."

Her father laughed, moving into her bedroom and taking a seat at Laurel's desk. The look on his face was dark and serious when he turned back towards her again, making Laurel sigh and push the book aside. She knew when she was about to get a talking to about things she shouldn't be doing, like breaking into the diner late at night.

"Look." His voice was low as he leaned forward in the chair, resting his elbows on his leg, "I know it's been tough for you, and your brother, moving here." He paused when Laurel rolled her eyes at him, pointing at her, "Don't give me that look, you know it makes me feel like such a dumb dad."

With big blue eyes, she looked directly at him with a wry grin and shrugged her shoulders, "Well, if the shoe fits."

The corners of his lips tugged up into a smirk. Sometimes it was just so easy with her dad. Shifting on her bed she turned toward him, crossing her legs and straightening her back. Chin up, hands on her knees. "So, do you want me to lie and tell you I'll stop sneaking into the diner, or are we going to make a deal?"

"Clean up after yourself and don't abandon your boyfriends in Luke's place of business."

Laurel reached out to shake his hand, "Sounds fair."

"Now I have to go tell your mom I got swindled."

As she watched him go, Laurel realized that this was her chance to get an answer. Taking a deep breath, she found her voice just before he disappeared out the door, "Hey, dad?"

"Yeah?"

Their eyes met and Laurel lost all her nerve. "It's nothing," she insisted, "Just…thanks for understanding, I guess."

Even if he didn't say it in so many words, Laurel knew her dad well enough to know he genuinely understood her. After all, hadn't he been the first to tell her that Stars Hollow kind of sucked when you were a teenager, but if you gave it a chance, it could really grow on you.

Pulling the book back into her lap, Laurel had a feeling that it wasn't the town that had grown on him, but rather a certain protagonist with piercing blue eyes.

* * *

Despite her best efforts, Laurel still found herself standing outside of Chilton on Monday morning. No one was moved by her desperate pleas that, really, she was far too sick to attend school that day. Or maybe even any day this week. She probably had mono, it was better to be safe than sorry.

Her grandmother had cracked a joke that her illness was _definitely_ kiss related, then her own mother had shoved a coffee in her hand, and told her to suck it up and get on the bus. There was very little sympathy to be found in the Gilmore family, apparently.

She could always just skip.

If she had been in New York, she definitely would have, but Laurel had no idea what kind of things you would do for fun in Hartford without a car. She was going to have to go in and face the music. All she could hope for was that maybe Caleb had decided to stay home instead.

That kind of luck would have been far too perfect. Instead, he was the first thing she saw when she rounded the corner to her locker. Like a deer in the headlights, she froze as soon as he turned her way. Maybe if she stood still enough he wouldn't see her, maybe he didn't even want to talk to her.

Or maybe he already her walking her way.

There was nowhere for her to go, so she stuck her ground. "Hi."

"Hey."

"So, about the other night…"

"Don't sweat it." Caleb paused, rubbing the back of his neck and shuffling his feet nervously. "But I was wondering if you maybe wanted to go out. On a date. With me."

Laurel's eyes widened. She had never been asked out on a date. In New York, she had just had boyfriends. They did things together, but they had never _gone out_ before. This was new, and not totally unwelcome, either. When she finally spoke, her voice was quieter than intended. "I'd like that."

An unprecedented smile spread on Caleb's face that made Laurel's heart flutter. "Saturday, then?"

"Saturday."

As he walked away, Laurel realized that she had the biggest smile on her own face, she couldn't wait to tell her mom about this.

* * *

"Would you put that book down and start getting ready for your date?"

Sarah Forester hovered above Laurel, fussing over her hair with a curling iron. Caleb was supposed to be picking her up in ten minutes, but she had been so engrossed in her mother's book that she hadn't realized the time until the tall brunette had come bounding in to see what Laurel's date outfit was and found her sitting in bed, still in pajamas.

"I can't, I'm almost done. Mom's ending things with Cal."

"What's than an alias from?"

"Titanic, I think." She flipped back to an earlier chapter where she had notes written in the margins. "There's a reference to the movie when they start seeing each other at Yale. They're jumping off a tower and mom quotes the 'you jump, I jump' part of the movie, but he was more of a Billy Zane than a Leo DiCaprio."

"At least he lives until the end of the movie." Sarah joked, "Leo winds up a popsicle."

Laurel knew the amount of attention she paid to analyzing every detail of the aliases her mother had created was borderline crazy, but she was fascinated by it. Fascinated by her mother and grandmother. Laurel had never really thought about how there was a whole lifetime that existed for them both before they had become her mother and grandmother. They had made mistakes, they had broken hearts.

And they'd had their hearts broken, too.

A phone buzzed on her desk, both girls turned to look, but it was Sarah who reached them first. "It's mine," the brunette sighed, "Family dinner time. You _have_ to text me all the details later, I'm going to live all this first date excitement vicariously through you. Romance isn't dead after all!"

"I'll be sure to tell your boyfriend that," Laurel laughed, rolling her eyes.

" _Laur-el_ , there's a _boy_ here for you." She could hear her brother calling for her, teasingly.

"Oh my god, I'm going to kill him!" Throwing her book across the room to her bed, Laurel jumped up and took a second of pause in front of her bedroom mirror, fussing with an unruly curl, before Sarah grabbed her and pushed her towards the stairs.

Caleb stood in the doorway look handsome as ever, dressed in jeans and a black blazer. In contrast, her brother looked all of his nine years. It threw Laurel off, Ollie had always appeared more grown-up to her. It was partially what made him such a terror. He was often the smartest person in the room.

"You must be Caleb," Sarah had slipped out in front of her now and extending her hand out in greeting, "I'm Sarah, the best friend. I've heard _so much_ about you."

" _O-kay_ , none of that. We're leaving now." She grabbed her date's arm as he reached out to shake Sarah's hand in return. "Bye Sarah! Tiny, tell mom and dad not to wait up. I'll be home by curfew."

In the background, she could hear Sarah should, "Make good choices!" And she was thankful it was dark, so that Caleb couldn't see her blush. She'd find a way to get Sarah back for that later.

She could _feel_ Caleb grinning beside her. "So, you talk about me, huh?"

"You don't have clearance for that kind of intel yet, sorry."

"All right, All right. Where should we go, then?"

Laurel balked at the question. She wanted to warn Caleb that you should never give a Gilmore too many options lest she choose them all, but she also didn't want to scare him off right away. The women in her family had a tendency to be a little intense at time, and she liked this one.

Instead, she tilted her head towards him with the slightest smirk, "Hey, _you_ asked _me_ out. You're the one supposed to be sweeping me off my feet with an extravagant first date I can later text all the juicy details of to my best friend. Chop, chop mister, you're on the clock."

Caleb laughed, and Laurel felt herself relax, knowing her joke had gone over well.

"All right." He nodded and then made a grand sweeping gesture towards his car, "Your chariot awaits then, Princess." Yet another blush crept onto her cheeks as she walked towards the brand new Mercedes sitting in the driveway.

She couldn't remember if she had ever been in a brand new car before. They'd barely needed one in New York, so her parents had bought a beat-up old hatchback to take them back and forth to Stars Hollow and Nantucket whenever they needed. It sat at the top of the driveway now, looking all too plain suddenly from where Laurel sat in the passenger's seat.

They weren't poor, both of her parents were fairly successful, but they were practical with their money. Well, outside of the stuff her mom bought from infomercials during her occasional bouts of insomnia. It was a comfortable life they led, one that was completely their own. Laurel never wanted for anything.

But she had to admit, the car _was_ pretty cool.

* * *

The pair wound up at a cozy Italian restaurant in Hartford where they were by far the youngest customers, and waiters indulged them in their request to drink their soda out of wine glasses. If romantic was what Laurel had been looking for, she found it here in the candlelight and soft instrumental music. As first dates went, this one was pretty perfect.

They talked about school, New York, where they wanted to go to college (Brown for Caleb, Laurel was undecided though she knew everyone expected her to attend Yale), and their families. It was nice, and easy, and Laurel looked forward to the end of the night. This time she wasn't going to run from the kiss.

"You know, I was originally going to try and impress you by saying I read your mom's book."

"Did you?"

Caleb turned bright red and rubbed the back of his neck, "No, but my mom's book club did. I was just going to sneak in some intelligent-sounding comments I overheard during their discussions, which mostly just sounded like gossiping."

"All right then, let's see what you got. Wow me with your smarts, Caleb Grant." She laughed, challenging him. Her mother's shadow followed her everywhere, she had learned to embrace it.

"Well, Laurel Gilmore, I would have said something like…" He leaned forward and put his chin in his hand, doing his best pensive pose, "It's fascinating how, at the end of the book, Rory is a mirror of her mother at the very beginning. Pregnant, alone, and terrified of being a disappointment."

Laurel blinked, "You have that wrong."

The redheaded boy in front of her frowned and shook his head, "Really? I mean, maybe I'm remembering what they said wrong, but…"

"You are," Laurel cut him off, insistently, "Mom wasn't alone."

Quietly, Caleb shrugged his shoulders and held up his glass, "Well, now I'm really glad I didn't try and impress with you with my second hand knowledge."

Still, even as he changed the subject, Laurel stayed stuck on his words. They bothered her. There was no way they were true. She didn't need to read the book to know the ending, she lived it every day. Her parents, together. A happily ever after.

But something nagged at her, she couldn't let it go. _Why_ would he say that? Grabbing her purse, she pushed herself back from the table abruptly. "I'll be right back."

She felt a little guilty for leaving Caleb sitting there on his own like that as she ducked into the women's bathroom. There was only one person she could think of who had read her mother's book and Laurel needed to talk to her immediately.

"Gilmore?" Asia Tudor answered the phone sounding a little confused, and slightly agitated.

"How does my mom's book end?" There was no time for pleasantries. A feeling of dread had settled in her stomach, the conversation between her parents suddenly echoing in her mind. They were keeping something from her that they had only recently decided they needed to tell her. Right around the same time she had started reading the book.

"Don't you have your own copy?"

"Asia, please," she sighed, desperately.

There was a pause and for an instant, Laurel was convinced that she had hung up. Then Asia's voice filled the void on the other end, excitedly, "It ends in perfect symmetry with the beginning, Rory tells Lorelai that she's pregnant. There's beautiful tragedy in the idea that we can't escape the ripples of our parents' influence."

All the air had been sucked out of the room and she couldn't breathe anymore. Asia might have still been talking, but it was muted now, distant. Something inside of her was breaking. Was her whole life a lie?

Dropping her phone back into her pocket, she slipped out the backdoor of the restaurant in a trance and called an Uber to take her home.

* * *

Bursting into the house like a hurricane in a pretty and a dangerous look in her eyes, Laurel marched right into the living room where her parents were curled up watching a movie and positioned herself directly in front of the television. Arms crossed over her chest, she waited.

With a concerned frown, her mother untangled herself from her father's embrace and sat up, pausing the film on television behind Laurel. "What happened? Are you okay?"

Staring at both of her parents with an angry, defiant look, Laurel felt like she was on the brink of either crying or a full-on Anne Shirley breaking her slate of Gilbert Blythe's head melt-down. Her gaze landed on her father and she pressed her lips together to keep them from quivering. "Why was mom all alone?" The words came out much softer than she expected them to, but the hurt seeped through, "When she got pregnant with me, she was all alone. How could you just abandon us like that?"

A cold silence fell over the room. Her parents shared a brief look before her mother's gaze turned to Laurel, "You didn't finish the book, did you?"

With a sigh, her father pushed over on the couch. "Sit down, there's something we need to tell you."


	8. It's a Gilmore Life

December brought renewed hope for Rory.

A fresh blanket of snow had covered Stars Hollow. It was a new start, a blank slate. The finality of her discussion with Logan had settled. She was ready to face the future now, without him. The ache was still there, it always would be, but she was channelling all of that energy now into her book. Well, her book and preparing for the newest addition to the family set to arrive in a little over six months' time.

Luke and her mother had slowly been working on transforming the apartment above the diner into a livable space for a baby. Rory had since been banned from the premises above the diner. Paint fumes were bad for the baby, was the running excuse, but she suspected the real reason was that her mom had pumped Luke up for a surprise reveal of the finished product. As a Gilmore, it was difficult for Rory to practice restraint, but she was doing her best. Luke's excitement was contagious.

December had also brought about their final farewells to her Grandparents' house in Hartford with the end of the year just around the corner. The sale of the house had finally gone through, and the new family was moving in at the start of the New Year. It was bittersweet for Rory. It also meant that she would have to find a new place to write, her grandfather's office stripped bare. The warmth of it gone.

Writing at her desk at the Stars Hollow Gazette had been a bust. It felt like a mausoleum at times, Charlie and Esther eternally at their posts day in and day out. With both her mother and Luke out of the house, she was willing to give her old room a shot to summon the ghosts of her childhood to the page.

Snow crunched under her feet as she climbed the porch steps, absently filing through the mail. For the past year, her mail had been redirected to Stars Hollow. It was mostly bills, but there was something different today. A letter, her name scrawled in familiar handwriting, and a Philadelphia return address.

Instinctively, she reached for her phone, ripping the envelope open. "You're unbelievable."

"So, you got it?" Jess' voice filled the line on the other end, deep and gentle. Filled with amusement.

"Is this for real?" Rory was stunned, "You're serious?" She hadn't expected this. Even when she had started writing the book on his suggestion, she hadn't really considered that Jess might publish it.

"Dead serious." A moment of silence passed between them, Rory still too speechless to talk. Jess laughed, "There's a small advance, if you sign. It's really not much, but it's something. We can set up an official meeting with Matt and Chris when you decide. Just, take your time. Think about it."

"I will." Another pause, the news still settling in her mind. "Hey, Jess? Thank you."

"It's nothing, I'd be terrible at my job if I didn't do what I could to get my hands on this story. Now, as your potential future publisher, you better get back to writing."

When Rory hung up the phone, she realized that she was grinning from ear to ear. It felt like things might finally have started coming together for her. She was moving forward again. 

* * *

A week later, Rory found herself in the middle of a busy restaurant in Philadelphia. She had come prepared this time. There was not going to be a repeat of the SandeeSays disaster. Her ego had been knocked down a few pegs in the last few months, and she was humbled that Jess would even consider signing her to Truncheon without so much as a full draft of her book ready to go. It was a small favor between friends, she knew, but she wasn't going to take it for granted, either.

"Be grateful I talked them out of wooing you with the newest, hippest bar in town." Jess was at her elbow then, leaning in to whisper in her ear. A classic smirk playing on the corners of his lips. Rory was thankful that he was there for the meeting, too. If anyone knew how to keep her grounded, it was him.

"And here I thought I was the one who was supposed to be jumping through hoops," she teased.

There was a glint of mischief in Jess' eyes when she locked onto them, "Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them."

"Never tell me the odds," Rory laughed, not missing a beat.

That was always the easy part with Jess. Matching him reference for reference. He had always been her intellectual equal, whether they were talking books or movies. Even after everything that they had been through together, there were some things that never changed.

His hand found the small of her back as he led her through the crowd towards their table where she was introduced to Matt and Chris, his partners at Truncheon. Rory immediately loved everything about their little group. Something about the three of them together made it easy for her to see clearly how each fit into making Truncheon the moderately successful publishing house it had become.

There was a twinge of jealousy in the pit of her stomach, seeing Jess here amongst his people. They had never been so far apart as they were in this moment at thirty-three in a restaurant in Philadelphia. Jess had carved out his place in the world a long time ago, while Rory was still floundering for hers.

From across the table, he caught her eye and she had to immediately look away. There were times when she felt utterly naked in front of Jess, as though with one look all of her thoughts were laid bare to him. Jess had always been able to read her like a book, and in moments like this one, she felt self-conscious about that fact. Even though he usually saw the best in her, Rory had had a hard time seeing it in herself.

"So, Rory!" From her left, Matt caught her attention, forcing her to turn her head away from Jess. "A little bird tells me you and Jess go way back. So, tell us, what our Hemmingway here was like as a teenager. Everything we'd expect?"

With a smile, her blue eyes flickered back to Jess momentarily, "Oh, yeah. Leather jackets, hair gel, all he was really missing was the motorcycle. The kind of boy your parents pray you never bring home."

"Not much has changed then, huh?" Chris laughed on her other side, tilting his beer towards Jess, "Still breaking hearts and depleting Philly's hair gel supply by the day. Speaking of, weren't you supposed to have a date tonight?"

"I postponed," Jess shrugged casually, taking a sip of his beer, "Had to make sure you two didn't mess this up. This one's going to be our very own Jeanette Walls."

Rory couldn't help the blush that crept up onto her cheeks at the comment. It was high praise, probably higher than she really deserved with only three chapters to show for herself as an author.

"You do have an eye for these things," Chris admitted. "What do you say, Rory? It'll be a small first printing, but we guarantee you that we'll put ourselves completely behind you and the book. You in?"

"I'm in." There was no hesitation on her part as she leaned in and reached her hand out to shake hands, first with Chris, then with Matt. From the second she had sat down, Rory knew that she had wanted to be a part of what they were building. She had been to Truncheon before, she knew that this was something that was entirely their own. Besides, they had published the works of an author she greatly admired, she knew she was putting herself in good company.

A lot of things in her life hadn't gone exactly as planned. In this moment, Rory felt like was finally finding her footing. She was going to do this, and she was going to do it right. With people who believed in her. Looking around the table at the faces that surrounded her, she knew she had found that here. 

* * *

"I can't believe you started without me!" Lorelai complained, throwing herself onto the couch in between her husband and daughter, a giant bowl of popcorn in her hands. "Is nothing sacred?"

"We just pressed play on the menu," Luke protested as he reached for the remote on the table, "You haven't even missed the opening credits."

"Pressing play is part of the movie experience! It's like starting A Film by Kirk _without_ Kirk's introduction. It's blasphemous! Have I taught you nothing in the years we've been together?"

Rory laughed and settled in next on the couch, listening to her mother and Luke have the same argument they had every Christmas when they tried to watch _It's a Wonderful Life_ together. There were some traditions that she couldn't imagine not being a part of her life anymore, this was one of them.

It struck her suddenly that this would be the last Christmas it would be just the three of them. Next year, there would be a new Gilmore in their midst. A shift in their tradition.

"Mom!"

"What! What is it? Quick, before the Angels start talking."

"We need a new stocking, do we have room for a new stocking?"

Luke responded first, "We'll make room, add a new nail in the railing."

"We'll have to start leaving cookies for Santa's reindeer again," Lorelai mused. When Rory looked at her mother, she realized that this was the first time Lorelai was really considering the change coming to their lives in the coming year. Tradition was important to the Gilmores, and even though their traditions had shifted in the last decade with Rory's job and Luke moving in, this was entirely unchartered ground.

"And gum for Santa." Rory caught Luke's eye and added, "He prefers it."

"We haven't had a kid for Christmas in so long. Maybe we can start some new traditions, like inviting your grandmother over. I think she'd like that, to be a part of it all. She missed so much last time."

The moments that Lorelai allowed herself to invite Emily so openly into their lives were so rare, that Rory couldn't help but take a moment's pause to try and capture an image of her mother with her walls down. To see, for just a second, that side of Lorelai who still so desperately wanted to her parents to be a part of her life as much as she had always fought against them.

Rory wondered if there was still a chance to heal old wounds between them, even if they would never really be as close as she was to Lorelai. Maybe this baby would bring them closer together.

"I think that would be nice," Rory agreed softly, leaning in to rest her head on her mother's shoulder. 

* * *

In the last minutes of the year, Rory Gilmore stood alone in the apartment above the diner.

Music and laughter drifted up to her from the town square below her, but she had purposely separated herself from the celebrations. The walls were still completely bare and the smell of paint still lingered in the air, but there was a warmth to the room that Rory found comfort in at the moment.

At midnight, they would welcome in a new year. A year of big changes for Rory. This was the year she was going to finish her book, the year she was going to become a mother. It only felt right that she should ring it in here, in her new home, with her unborn baby.

Sitting in the middle of the apartment, Rory could picture clearly how it would look in just a few months. Where her bed would be, the cradle, how she and her mother would decorate it in preparation for the arrival of the brand new Gilmore (Lorelai was insisting it would be a girl, Rory was not so sure). She could see her whole life slowly coming together in a new and unexpected way.

Placing a hand on her belly, Rory smiled to herself. "Happy New Year's, baby. I can't wait to meet you."


	9. Laurel Goes West

"Laurel, honey."

As her mother reached out to touch her shoulder, Laurel instinctively flinched away. She could hardly recognize the woman in front of her, she bore no resemblance to her mother. This woman had lied to Laurel her entire life, had hidden the truth from her own daughter while telling a world of strangers her deepest, darkest secrets. This wasn't her mother, this wasn't her family.

The line between what was real and fictional blurred dangerous. Trying to reconcile what her parents were telling her with the memories she had of her own life, Laurel squeezed her eyes shit and tried to make a list of things that she knew to be irrefutably true.

1\. She was born Laurel Emily Gilmore in Hartford, Connecticut at 3:20 am on June 23, 2017.

2\. One of her earliest memories was of her parents wedding. She had been the flower girl.

3\. Jess Mariano was not her biological father.

The last fact slipped in, unbidden, and echoed in her mind. It didn't feel like a fact. Instead, thinking about it send a wave of nausea rolling through her, and Laurel was instantly convinced that the appetizers she had eaten earlier were about the make a reappearance. Nothing in her life had prepared her for the bombshell that had been dropped that evening. It hadn't ever even been an option in her mind until the words had come spilling from her mother's lips, tearing at the seams of who Laurel had always believed herself to be. It was all a lie.

"You wrote about it in your book." Laurel couldn't bring herself to look at her mother as she spoke, her voice cracking as she stared at strange stain on the carpet below her. "The entire world knew, _everyone_ knew, except for me. How could you do that, how could you just lie to me my whole life like that?"

"We were always going to tell you, I just didn't know how."

Finally, she turned her gaze back towards her mother, but the look she gave her was cold, angry. "I'll submit your name for mother of the year then because 'let's let Laurel read about it in a book' was a solid choice. Really, bravo!"

"Hey!" There was a hint of aggression in her father's tone, protectiveness. "Go easy on your mom. None of this was easy on her, kid. Not telling you about your birth father was a really tough choice."

Her blue eyes flashed over to meet her father's brown. Until this moment, Laurel had never thought much about the stark differences between them, how any familial resemblance had seemed skipped over them completely. Now it stuck out like a sore thumb, and hurt like one too. All her life she had been so sure of her identity, but it was just another story her mother had made up.

A happy ending to tack onto the end of her bedtime stories.

"Does he even know I exist?"

"He does." A small frown creased her mother's forehead, "I told him, when I found out about you. Things were just…complicated. If he could have, I know he would have loved to see you grow up."

For some reason, that didn't make Laurel feel any better. Maybe she had been hoping that her mother had lied to him, too. That somehow, her biological father might not know she existed either. Then, she wouldn't have been the last person to find out. Then, she wouldn't have been the only one who had been lied to for these past sixteen years. Instead she felt hollow. Alone.

"Who is he? The real Cal, my father."

"His name is Logan Huntzberger."

* * *

A little research told Laurel everything she needed to know about her paternal family. It was surprisingly easy to find information on them, including a picture of her biological father and his current whereabouts: California, helping to run the family business. In fact, Logan had apparently been taking a more active role in the company in light of his father's recent health issues.

California seemed so far from her small room in Stars Hollow. Laurel chewed on the back of a pencil and stared down the handsome blonde man on her computer screen who apparently made up half of her genetics. She had gone her whole life without knowing he even existed, but now she couldn't stop thinking about him. Who was he? Did he ever think about her? The little girl growing up without him.

Her fingers gently stroked the keys of her laptop, looking up the cost of a cross-country bus ticket. If she dipped into her birthday funds, she maybe had enough for a one-way trip. She could pretend she was going to school in the morning and just keep going, like her dad – like Jess – had done at eighteen. Laurel had grown up in New York too, she could take care of herself just as easily.

"Hey."

Quickly tapping out of the Greyhound website, Laurel spun to look at her father standing in her doorway. "I don't really want to talk."

"Good, it's my turn to talk now." Her dad didn't move from where he stood. Instead, he just leaned against the doorframe, turning a quarter around between his fingers. "I didn't really plan on being your dad. I mean, I didn't really have a father figure most of my life, so I figured I wasn't qualified anyway..."

"Dad-" She tried to cut him off, but he shook his head at her.

"But the first time you called me dad," he continued, "I don't think you even knew what you were saying or what it meant, but you took ownership of me and I was all in after that."

It hadn't occurred to Laurel yet, her father's side of things. What it might have been like for him, raising her for all these years and knowing that she wasn't really his. Or how hard it was for him now that the truth was out, his place in her life being called into question. He had made the choice to be her dad, even if it wasn't by blood, and he had stood by it. For better or worse, he had been there for her.

"How old was I?"

"Two, I think." There was a second's pause before he spoke again, "I _am_ your dad, Laurel. No matter what, you're always going to be my kid. Nothing in the world will change that. We're family."

"I know."

A million questions formed in Laurel's mind. There were so many things she didn't know about her parents, she realized. Things that she had never thought to ask them about because, for as long as she could remember, this had always been her life. She had always thought she knew the whole story, but she only knew the story of Rory and Jess as Mom and Dad. Some of the pages were missing,

Before she could say anything though, he father took a step into the room and held out his credit card. "I met him once, your birth father. Wasn't a fan. Wanting to know the person you share DNA with is something I understand though, it's why I followed Jimmy to California, so if you need to, then go."

Laurel blinked. She hadn't been expecting this, so it took her a second to react. When she did though, she found herself moving across the room to throw her arms around her father. "I love you, Dad."

"I know."

* * *

The bus to California was long and cramped and smelly. Laurel was quickly realizing that commuting cross county on the road was not idea. Especially not for her. Cranky, sleep deprived, and severely withdrawing from caffeine, Laurel was beginning to suspect that perhaps offering to pay for her bus ticket himself rather than talking her out of going had been a cruel prank her father had played on her.

She was going to need a hot shower and a nap before she could even consider tracking Logan Huntzberger down. Definitely a coffee, too. After all, she was still a Gilmore.

From her pocket, he phone let out a vibrant chirp. Considering she had already texted her father when she had crossed state lines into California, there was only one serious contender for who it could be. The one person, aside from her mother, that Laurel was very seriously avoiding. Caleb. Since ditching him at the restaurant on their first date, she hadn't been able to face him. First, she had run away after they kissed, then she had disappeared on their date. She couldn't imagine he had anything nice to say to her.

Clearly, she had torpedoed her chances with him spectacularly. Confirmation of that fact would hurt too much, and Laurel didn't know how much more heartache she could deal with right now. Maybe it was for the best, her life was kind of a mess right now. Caleb was a good guy, he deserved better.

"Hey, Gilmore!"

A familiar voice called out from across the bus station, bringing a smile to Laurel's face. "Van Gerbig!" Dropping her backpack, she leapt into the arms of the older boy, hugging him tightly. It was a stroke of good fortune that Kwan Van Gerbig happened to currently be making California his home base. His band had become moderately successful in the past couple of years, and Laurel knew they were currently recording their second album. It had been all her Uncle Zach had talked about over the summer.

Despite their age difference, Laurel had always been close to Stevie and Kwan. They were every bit her family as her own mother was. They had all grown up and spent the holidays together, the twins even used to baby sit her when their parents went out. Having Kwan here gave Laurel an anchor, a touchstone to remind her that no matter how much her mother's revelation had shaken her world, she still knew who she was. Where she had come from.

"Come on," Kwan nudged her, picking her bag up off the floor, "My mom has been calling every fifteen minutes. I can now tell her that you made it to California in one piece. You are in one piece, right?"

"Let it be known that all my limbs are accounted for, yes."

"It'll be headline news in the Stars Hollow Gazette within the hour."

"Mom will leave out the poem to relay the news," Laurel joked, "It'll be bedlam!"

"Pandemonium in Stars Hollow, nothing compares." There was a smirk on Kwan's face as he shook his head and led the way to the rusty car he had driven to get her in. As much as they could joke about it, they both knew that there really was no place on earth quite like Stars Hollow in the world. It was a place that existed out of time, marching along to the beat of its own drum.

Having put a whole country of distance between herself and the small, quirky town, Laurel felt a pang of homesickness thinking about it. She had always loved the weirdness of Stars Hollow, but she had considered New York as home until just now. Somewhere in the last few months, she had fallen in love with the town just as her grandmother had when she ran away to it, the way her mother had growing up there, the way even her father had despite fighting it for years.

"Shit," she said aloud, forcing Kwan to turn and look at her, "They got me."

The older boy laughed and shook his head, reading her mind, "They always do."

* * *

Kwan lived in a small house by the beach with his band-mates, all boys. It was loud and messy, and Laurel loved everything about it. In a lot of ways, it reminded her of how her Aunt Lane's house had always been when she was little, before the twins had moved away. Instruments cluttered every room and there always appeared to be at least three more people than actually lived there. It was perfect.

The bassist, Charlie, had lent Laurel his room for the night. It was the smallest room, right off the kitchen, but Laurel would have the most privacy and the best view from there. Posters of obscure rock bands covered the walls, Batman sheets covered the single bed that was shoved in the corner, and she felt instantly at home. Maybe she could join the band and play the triangle or something, live here.

Sitting cross-legged in the center of the bed, she pulled out her laptop and mapped the way out to Logan Huntzberger's office. She had called earlier and made an appointment to see him, using a fake name, but now as she stared at projected route, Laurel was beginning to have second thoughts. What if he didn't want to have anything to do with her? What if her mother had been right to keep her away?

Reaching for her phone, she made a call she had been avoiding. Her mother immediately answered, "Are you alright? Is everything okay?"

"Is he a bad guy, my real dad?"

"Of course not."

"Did you love him?"

"I did." There was a sadness in her mother's voice that Laurel didn't recognize. "I loved him very much. In the end, we just didn't work. We both needed to grow up, and we couldn't do that together. Logan would have been a part of your life, if he could have, Laurel. He just…didn't have a choice."

"Why didn't you tell me about him, really?" Her voice was quiet as she shifted on the bed to lean against the wall. She had been so mad at her mother before she left, so resentful, so focused on the lie that she had been living her whole life, that she hadn't asked her mother why she'd hidden the truth for so long.

"I never wanted you to feel like something was missing in your life." There was a long pause on the other end of the phone, her mother taking a beat to collect her words. "Maybe I was trying to protect myself too, from the decisions I made. I was scared, of how much you would resent me for them."

For a flash, Laurel saw her mother at thirty-two. Pregnant, scared, alone. How hard must it have been for her, to face motherhood on her own? She felt a momentary pang of guilt for how angry she had been at her mother for the past couple of days. It was too much right now. "I have to go, Mom. Bye."

Quickly, she hung up the phone and held it to her chest, letting a single tear fall.

On the other side of the country, Rory Gilmore was doing the same thing.

* * *

"Logan Huntzberger's office, how may I help you?"

For the past half hour, Laurel had been sitting in an over-sized arm-chair outside of her biological father's office, waiting for their meeting. Her stomach grumbled hungrily. She had been too nervous to eat before she had arrived, but now all she could think about was the taco stand she had passed on the way over here. Briefly, she wondered if she had enough time to sneak out and get one before they called her in.

The universe answered immediately as the annoyingly perky secretary's eyes finally moved to acknowledge for the first time since Laurel walked in that she was, in fact, still there. "Ms. DeWitt, Mr. Huntzberger will see you now." With a perfectly manicured hand, she motioned to the closed door behind her without a smile, immediately turning her attention back to her computer screen.

Laurel was tempted to make some snarky comment under her breath, but bit her tongue instead. The nerves were back and she was afraid that if she opened her mouth to speak, she'd throw up.

Taking a deep breath to gather all her courage, Laurel pushed the office door open and walked through. An older man sat behind the desk, the same dirty blonde hair as Laurel, the same dimple in his cheek when he smiled in greeting, "Ms. DeWitt, please come in."

Laurel froze as her eyes locked onto his warm brown ones. Everything she had rehearsed saying to him on the way over immediately flew out of her mind the instant she saw herself in this stranger. "My name's not actually Kate DeWitt," she blurted out instead, her cheeks burning.

"I know who you are, Laurel Gilmore," this strange man who was her father laughed from behind his desk, "And it's nice to finally meet you."


	10. Pot, Meet Kettle

Trips to Philadelphia became a regular occurrence for Rory in the New Year. While she knew that there was no real need for them, it was easier to just e-mail the latest chapters of her book, there was just something about being around the bustle of the independent publishing house that she loved. With Jess and Matt and Chris at the helm, Truncheon was a well-oiled machine, and it reminded her of what it had been like to work on the Franklin or the Yale Daily New. Rory had also found it easier to write on these trips, so she had started to make the four hour journey as often as possible.

The Truncheon team didn't seem to mind her being around, either. Rory wondered what it would be like for this to be a part of her daily routine. The more she saw of Philadelphia, the more things she found to like about it. Sure, it wasn't New York, but it was vibrant and warm and interesting. Plus, it had the Rocky statue. Both Rory and her mother had vowed they would run those steps eventually. Probably when Rory wasn't pregnant. Most likely, they'd just give up halfway.

"Hey, do you have a minute?"

Lifting her head, Rory greeted Chris with a smile as he approached the small workspace she had created for herself in an empty corner. "Of course, what's up?"

"Well…" Chris shifted from foot to foot nervously, running a hand through his hair. "You know we love having you here…"

She could sense the ' _but'_ before it even left his lips. Forehead creasing, Rory lowered the screen of her laptop and leaned forward, "I overstayed my welcome, didn't I? I didn't mean to. I didn't even mean to keep coming back after I signed the papers, but it's noisy and busy and there aren't two practically mummified old people staring at me all the time making me feel like they might try and drink my blood if I fall asleep at my desk here. It's just easier to work."

Pausing for a second, Rory took a breath and started to gather up her things, "I'll leave."

"No, wait," Chris held up his hands, a panicked look on his face, "That's not what I meant. We've all just been talking about how maybe you'd like your own desk? Maybe take on some extra work, too."

"Like, a job? Here?" Rory blinked, taken aback a little.

"Like a job here," he laughed, taking another step towards her, "Jess' workload is getting a little heavy and we've been meaning to hire another editor. You have experience."

"As editor for a college newspaper," she pointed out, chewing on her bottom lip. It wasn't that she didn't want the job, it was just that she had never really considered it before. All of her life she had dreamed of being Christiane Amanpour, never the Ezra Pound to someone's T.S. Eliot. That had always seemed more up Jess' alley, anyway, writing notes in the margins of her books. It had never really surprised her that he had ended up in publishing. Or that he had written his own book.

"We think you can handle it."

"And the…" She trailed off, both of their eyes darting down to her growing baby bump, "I'd have to move here, wouldn't I?"

"When you're ready to," Chris nodded, "And you could work from home, for a while."

Though she had been daydreaming about this just moments before, Rory hadn't actually considered it as a reality. With the baby on the way and the apartment above the diner almost ready, she had come to terms with the fact that she was really back in Stars Hollow for the foreseeable future. Raising her baby anywhere else had never even crossed her mind from the minute she had realized she was doing this alone. "Can I think about it?"

"Give it some thought, we really would love to have you."

* * *

"What do you think?"

Rory and Jess had tucked themselves into the corner of a busy coffee shop, shrugging off their coats and settling into the small wooden chairs. They had been seeing a lot more of each other since Lorelai and Luke's wedding, with work in common now it was only natural. Still, Rory couldn't help but take note of it as being significant. Even as teens living in Stars Hollow, they had never been friends. Not really. This was something new.

Sure, they had spent time talking about books together, but there had always been something more going on between them. Even when Rory had been with Dean, there were underlying feelings there. Whether she had admitted it at the time or not. Then, they had been exes. Things were different now. They had let go of all their history and baggage, and that had opened the door for something else. Something that worked for the both of them at this juncture in their lives.

"I might be biased, but I think you should do it. I know it's not an overseas correspondent, but it is good work. I can always drive straight at you screaming in a foreign language once a week, if it'll help."

Rory laughed, remembering the first time he had suggested that exact thing, "Have you learned a foreign language since we were seventeen?"

"Do you still tutor?" With a smirk, he caught her eye and winked. It didn't surprise Rory at all that he remembered, even after all this time. Jess was a writer, too. However brief their entanglement as teenagers, it had been significant to them both. There were some things you never forgot, just as there were some things that never changed. No matter how much they both had over the years.

"Thankfully we're not in a moving car right now," Rory teased, "I think my mother would be just as appreciative of a call from the hospital as she was the first time."

Jess laughed, "And just as we finally started getting along."

"How _did_ that happen, anyway?" There was no denying that the dynamic between Lorelai and Jess had shifted over the years. Rory knew that it was in large part due to her mother's relationship with Luke, but it was still strange to see at times, the camaraderie between the pair.

There was a wicked look of mischief in his eyes as he shook his head at her, "I'm sworn to secrecy." It was the same thing her mother had told her when Rory had asked years ago. A mystery even Luke didn't know the story behind. Jess seemed to read her mind with a chuckle, "That kills you doesn't it?"

"You have no idea." It was not lost on Rory how similar her mother and Jess were at times, and it was no surprise that they had found common ground in those similarities as adults. Of course, that didn't mean that she didn't wish that she could have been a fly on the wall during whatever had forced the two of them to begin to build a relationship after years of animosity. Especially since neither of them seemed willing to divulge that information freely. "I'm glad though, that you two get along now. For Luke."

She noticed the way Jess tilted his head and the slight furrow in his brow when she tacked on his uncle's name at the end of her sentence, but neither of them pursued the topic further. Instead, Jess sat back a little and lifted his own drink to take a sip, "Have you told her yet?"

"About the job offer? No."

With a knowing look, Jess leaned toward her across the table again. His voice was low, serious. "You know, you wouldn't be alone. Everyone at Truncheon, they're a family. It'd be a little less like Pleasantville, but Stars Hollow isn't that far away either. You could go back and visit all the time."

"And you?"

There was a moment's hesitation before he nodded his head, "I'd be here, too."

For a moment, the pair sat in silence letting the weight and implications of his words settle. An appreciative smile spread on Rory's face, a quiet thank you passing between them as eyes locked. It wasn't much, but it was hope for the future. That maybe despite everywhere she had gone wrong in her life, there was still time to get back on course with just a little help from her friends.

"You still get to choose your path," Jess added after a minute. "Stars Hollow was your mom's story. It doesn't need to be yours, too. Whatever decision you make, do it for _you_."

He was right, she knew that. Just because she was having a baby, it didn't mean that she couldn't still have it all. Plenty of people had a career and kids. Many did it alone, too. Besides, Rory knew that she wouldn't be completely on her own. Her mom, Luke, Lane, even Jess, would be there for her.

"You're right." Writing her book, Rory had gotten so caught up in her and her mother's story, that she hadn't realized that she was starting a whole new story. It was time to forge her own path, make a new start.

Now she just had to tell Lorelai, which was more stressful than moving to Philadelphia or starting a new job.

* * *

"It's another Lorelai Gilmore!"

Swinging the door open and sweeping her arms wide in a dramatic fashion, Lorelai Gilmore made the loud declaration to a half-empty Luke's Diner. Following just a few steps behind her, Rory shook her head and quietly corrected her mother, "That's not her name."

They had just gotten back from Rory's latest doctor's appointment in Hartford. After the disappointment of not being able to find out the baby's gender the previous month, she had insisted on keeping her legs crossed, both were excited to finally get confirmation it was a girl. Of course it was, her mother insisted, they were Gilmores. Rory wondered briefly what would have happened if the baby had been a boy, neither of them had prepared for that possibility.

"What else are you going to name her? It's a family name!"

"So is Emily."

Lorelai gasped, "You wouldn't dare!"

"But think about how happy it would make Grandma," Rory pointed out, sliding into her seat at their usual table, ignoring the feigned look of shock on her mother's face as Lorelai took her own place.

"It wouldn't make her happy, it would make her smug."

"Can I at least make it her middle name? Grandma deserves a namesake, too."

Her mother seemed to consider it a second before finally nodding, "Fine, it can be her middle name."

Luke joined them at their table then, a steaming pot of coffee in his hands, backwards baseball cap in place on his head. "A girl, huh? Congratulations," he said quietly as he filled their cups.

"What do you think, Luke, about a name for the baby?" Rory asked, tilting her head up thoughtfully towards her step-father.

"You could do worse than naming her after you and your mother," Luke shrugged, tucking his pen behind his ear, "You're both two of the strongest, most incredible women I know. It's a fine legacy to carry on. Might get a bit confusing though, with three of you."

Her mother smiled approvingly, "And I didn't even have to bribe him."

It had been a good day so far and as Rory watched her mother from across the table, she decided that this was as good a time as any to tell her about Philadelphia. She didn't know why she was so nervous anyway, her mother would be happy for her. Rory drew in a deep breath, "So, I got a job offer."

"You did?" Lorelai's entire face lit up, "That's amazing, hon! What is it?"

"It's working for Truncheon actually, as an editor."

A line of worry creased her mother's forehead, "Truncheon, in Philadelphia? Where Jess works?"

"That's the one," she nodded.

"No. No way," her mother shook head, "You can't just give up your career, your goals, to chase after some guy. This isn't you. This isn't what you want. You're a journalist, that's always been the dream."

"Jess and I are _just_ friends." Rory drew a line in the air with her hands to accentuate her point. "It's a good job and I really like it there. This isn't about him. This is about me making my own way, finding my own place in the world."

"You can do that here where you have a job doing what you love."

"I'm doing it for free," Rory reminded her, "That's not a job."

"Then just ask Taylor to pay you."

"I can't do that," she sighed, "This is what I want, this is what I _need._ Just like you needed to leave Grandma and Grandpa's when you had me. Stars Hollow is your story, it's time I write my own."

"You're making a mistake." Lorelai's words were cold and decisive as she pushed back from the table and stormed out of the diner, leaving a shell-shocked Rory watching after her.

Ever since she had found out that she was pregnant, Rory had been waiting for the other shoe to drop, so afraid of disappointing her mother. Lorelai had been so supportive though from the start, excited even, so this had blindsided Rory. She tried not to cry, ignoring the stares from the other diner patrons.

A heavy hand fell on shoulder, Luke stood above her with a somber look on his face. "Your mom will come around," Luke insisted, "She's just scared that if you move away, she's going to lose you. That she'll miss out on things with the baby, the way her parents did."

"That would never happen, I need her."

"I know, kid." Luke shrugged his shoulders, "Lorelai's as stubborn as they get. It'll be okay."

With a sigh, she gave Luke a tight, forced smile. "Thank you, Luke." Then, glancing back towards the stairs behind him she added, "Can I stay here a couple of nights?"

"Knock yourself out, the place is yours now."

Even though the apartment above the diner was nearly fully furnished, Rory hadn't had the heart to move out of her mother's house yet. As she climbed the steps now, she knew it was finally time. She had to grow up and move on. At least now it was a short waddle to Luke's.


End file.
